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From the Sutton website . The non league paper states there were 5 clubs after him !! Oh dear Bath City.

Ross Stearn

13th November 2016

We can confirm that the club have accepted a second bid from Eastleigh Football Club for the transfer of winger Ross Stearn. The Bristol-based 26-year-old, who was voted Man of the Match in yesterday's game against Barrow, has scored six goals for U's this season and made 80 appearances for the club in total. Manager Paul Doswell commented: "Ross has improved almost game by game since joining Sutton, and thoroughly deserves this chance to secure his family's future for the next three years, whilst also realising an ambition to be a full time professional. Whilst we didn't want to sell, Ross only had six months left on his contract, and it was unlikely that he would sign another due to his family circumstances and a regular three hour drive to the Club.As a club we feel very proud that we can improve players and give them a chance to progress with full time football, and Eastleigh have provided Ross with this chance. They are a very ambitious club, similar to Forest Green, and hopefully Ross will fulfil his dream of playing league football. I also have every faith in Ryan Burge and Bradley Hudson-Odoi that they can help fill the void left by Ross, and we still maintain the best squad of players that I've ever had the pleasure to manage.We will always make the right decisions for the Club and our players. We don't have the financial capacity of most clubs at this level,but players sign here because they know we will improve them and honour our word to let them progress. It's a huge badge of honour for the coaching staff, especially Ian Baird who stays out of the limelight but has a great ability to get the best out of players who previously have been released as not good enough, or in Ross Stearn's case, was a perennial substitute for Bath City.So we move on, still as ambitious to produce good players and keep this great football club moving forward. My black book is always open, updated and ready to go, and our job is to keep finding the next Stefan Payne, Charlie Clough, Dan Wishart, Tom Bolarinwa or Ross Stearn.Ross has asked me to pass on these words. "Thank you to all at the club for the best two years of my career. I've loved being part of this wonderful club,with great team-mates and supporters. Winning the National League South and the subsequent celebrations is something I'll never forget. From a family perspective it's a great move for me, and I would like to thank Sutton for allowing the transfer to happen. I know Sutton United will keep progressing and would recommend any young player who wants to improve and progress to sign at this special football club."''

BenE wrote:Happy for the lad. Always thought he had the talent has now shown the application too.

Yes....great move for him and a reasonable fee paid to Sutton I understand.

He probably had a lot more encouragement & understanding from the Sutton management team to apply himself better I expect, because as you say BenE he was head and shoulders above the rest of the squad skill wise.

He was very poorly managed at Bath City and the loyal supporters who called for him to come on during every game he sat on the bench were right and the previous management duo, unfortunately for Bath City, got it so so wrong.

As I mentioned following Dan Bowman's departure, we do not have a good record of getting the best from our own young players. It's true that Stearn did not come up through the ranks at TP, but we should have made greater use of his talents. The problem for me is that I don't think you can isolate this to a Adie/Archie thing against Stearn - we don't seem set up as a club to develop young talent. People are rightly excited about Tyler Harvey's return - but it's for 3 months and then presumably he will be gone. A policy of having a basic squad of around 17 and boosting it when needed with loan signings is very short term - perhaps we can learn something from the set up at Sutton and some other clubs...

You are spot on there Comrade, the club really does need to look at this because the local talent is out there but it never seems to benefit Bath City.

How many players have Billy Clark's Academy brought through into the first team squad? Is there any point in having an Academy if there is no joined up thinking between these two sections of the club?....or maybe there is but it certainly is not working as far as I can see.

You have local Western League Odd Down shouting about a 17 year old who is trialling with Wolves and how long was the prolific Sam Jordan scoring bucket loads for Bradford Town before he went to Weymouth? I know he has been injured this season but when he has played he has scored loads of goals for them as well, so well done Jason Matthews for taking a chance on an untried younger player. Surely we could try these younger players - especially strikers as it is a natural talent to put the ball in the net - and God knows we could do with a goal scorer at the moment.

Maybe the new Supporter owned club Board of Directors could introduce a completely different way forward on this matter as club policy. This would repair links with the local football community and show local talent that there is a way to progress up the ladder if you join Bath City.

There must be the likes of Alan Skirton, Brian Owen, Colin Tavener, Tony Gough, Paul Gover and Tony Book out there somewhere and if they are they should be playing for us, developed and then if good enough sold on for a few bob.......surely that's how it should work isn't it??...

Saturday I went to Paulton where they lost 3-1 to Slimbridge.Best player on pitch by a country mile was Jordon Ricketts. Whether he's good enough to make step up I don't know but another young player who's been with us but moved on. A midfield play maker able to carry the ball foreward and support the attack.

Although the club has an excuse for losing the likes of Scott Sinclair to bigger clubs like Bristol Rovers (and, let's face it, that was a while ago), losing Ashley Barnes to Paulton Rovers (again a while ago) and Tyrone Mings to Yate Town and then Chippenham Town - and not so long ago - is more of an issue.

Some of the age group that trialled for the academy this summer are players that I coached when they were junior players and it was interesting seeing how they did at the trials. I am not going to comment on who got chosen for the academy as I do not really know what Billy Clark was looking for. However, there did seem to be a fair amount of talent at the trials and, I am sure, selected from there.

I am not entirely sure what the throughput is like from the Academy to the Under 21s and then into the first team is like. I am not sure that we have anyone in our squad that has come from the Academy now (or possibly even the Under 21s). I don't think that Dan Bowman came through the Academy, did he?

I think it is a little unfair to criticise us for letting Sam Jordan slip through the net. I recall that when he was scoring all those goals for Bradford we did make an approach, but at the time he was happy playing at that level because of his work etc and didn't want to commit to the extra travelling that playing for us would have involved. Interesting that despite his move to Weymouth he is back playing at the same level.

As for Jordan Ricketts, he seemed to be a victim of the previous regime's reluctance to give young players a chance even when the team was struggling.

Ricketts was progressing in the 2013/14 season, I saw the Academy play a number of times in the second half of that season and he, along with Nathan Legge and Elliott Gibbons, stood out. Ironically all three are now at Paulton, Legge had a stint in the USA before moving back here.

We were pretty well covered in central midfield around that time, the likes of Allen, Burnell, Connolly, Adelsbury etc. Would have been too much of a step up in class then. I saw him (Ricketts) play for Paulton the other week against Bishops Cleeve and he did well, but didn't instantly make me think "he will make a massive difference to our team." Once again the difference in standard is huge*, and Paulton aren't pulling up any trees at the moment.

I think that most players coming from leagues below are going to need readjustment to the step up otherwise they wouldn't be in the lower leagues. That comes from coaching rather than just managing piling players. The elephant in the room with the argument about players stepping up, of course, is Nick McCootie. I really like Nick, know that he tries hard and his improvement in fitness this season is down to a lot of personal independent conditioning work in the close season. However, aside from a fair few great goals from him, he still isn't really a Conference South player 3 or 4 years on. He is much nearer this season but still there is a gap, he is still here and still starting a fair few games. He isn't even that young. As I say, I like him and have no qualms about what he does personally but, if we are going to take a punt on him regularly but not local younger lower league players or, indeed, our own Under 21 (or possibly even Academy ) players something is awry